An
old United Farm Workers banner donated to SFSU's Labor Archives and Research
Center by a Sacramento woman in 2001 will be the focus of an episode
of PBS' "History Detectives." On the episode, which airs at
9 p.m. Monday on KQED, the sleuths will attempt to find out if the UFW
banner was in fact carried by Cesar Chavez during the famous "Delano
Plan" farm
workers march of 1966.

"The UFW banner was one of my favorite stories to work on," said
Lucy Blackburn, producer of "History
Detectives." "A
lot of the country isn't as familiar with the work of Cesar Chavez
as most Californians are, and the UFW banner story was a great opportunity
to bring that history up."

The banner, made of velveteen and satin, features
an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the farm workers eagle, the
symbol for the
United Farm Workers. It is rumored to have been carried
at the head of the famous Delano Plan march during the grape boycott,
which began in 1965.

In the march, Cesar Chavez, then 38, led several dozen protesters
on a 230-mile route from Delano, Calif., to the steps of the State
Capitol building in Sacramento. They sought better living conditions
and rights for Mexican-American farm workers.

The Delano Plan march lasted 25 days. Citizens from every walk of
life joined the marchers at various points along the route. When they
arrived at the State Capitol building at noon Easter Sunday, more than
10,000 supporters waited to meet them.

Pictures of Cesar Chavez and his fellow protesters walking beneath
the banner, alongside articles about the march, were featured in California
newspapers for the 25 consecutive days of the march.

The banner's donor is the widow of a man who participated
in the Delano Plan march before he was married. He later told his
wife the story
of the march and the role the banner played She relayed his story to
Susan Sherwood, acting director and archivist at SFSU's Labor
Archives.
The "History
Detectives" hope to confirm whether the banner is in fact the
one carried in the 1966 march, and they have spared no effort to find
out.

"Our detectives traveled to Sacramento to speak to people who
knew the donor," Blackburn said. "We went to Harvard University
to meet with a labor historian who was part of the march. We also talked
to a curator at the Mexican-American Museum in San Francisco who examined
the iconography and historical symbolism of the banner and uncovered
information about the use of banners in political marches."